Speaker of Ebonyi State House of Assembly and governorship candidate of All Progressives Congress (APC), Rt. Hon. Francis Ogbonna Nwifuru, has been declared winner of the last Saturday’s governorship election in the State.
Gatekeepers News reports that the State Returning Officer, Prof. Charles Igwe, while declaring the result at the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) State headquarters in Abakaliki, said that Rt. Hon. Nwifuru garnered 199,131 votes across the 13 local government areas of the State.
His closest challenger, Chief Ifeanyi Chukwuma Odii of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) scored 80,191 votes to come second while the candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Prof. Bernard Odoh, trailed behind with 52,189 votes.
Though the Labour Party announced that the party did not have any candidate for the governorship election in the State, the party, however, secured 6,793 votes to come fourth in the governorship race.
Igwe said that Rt. Hon Francis Ogbonna Nwifuru satisfied all the requirements of the law and has been returned elected and declared the winner of the election.
Prof Igwe, who is the Vice Chancellor of the University of Nigeria Nsukka, Enugu State, said that the number of registered voters in the 13 LGAs stands at 1,597,646 while the number of accredited voters stands at 350,345.
He maintained that the total valid votes cast stood at 342,554, the rejected votes stood at 7,387 while the total votes cast stood at 349,941.
“I hereby certify that I, Prof. Charles Igwe was the Returning Officer of the governorship election held on the 18th of March 2023 in Ebonyi State.
“That Francis Ogbonna Nwifuru of the APC having satisfied the requirements of the law and having scored the highest number of votes is hereby returned and elected,” he said.
